I stopped by a buddy's place after work. He wanted to know about some of my leftovers from long gone projects. Maybe make a deal or a trade. Right now Im out of the car mood. I like to say I'm between projects, but maybe I'm just burned out? Dont get me wrong I still love the old cars and trucks, I do check out the HAMB everyday =) But right now getting rid of the rest of my "junk" might just be a good thing. I'm into my 50s and Ive been dragging home neat ol car projects since I was 13. Course my mom or my ex wife's may not have considered em neat. . Eventually you stop wrenching on cars, right? Recently there have been a couple of threads on having a car built vs building it yourself. Sure sounded nice to me. Hop in the car and go. No grease, no bruises and cuts, no late nights in a cold shop trying to figure out why the heck this or that thing wont fit, why wont it start? ... and on and on. So anyway, at my buddies place he has a 64 Tempest, two door, 326 and four speed sitting on a trailer. Kinda rusty, doesn't run, but the kind of car I would have drug home in the past. He's like "You should buy this" Um no, yes it could be cool, but no thanks. Him, a friend of his and me were leaning on the old Tempest just shooting the shit, talking cars...you know the deal, we've all been there. Now I dont know who said it but someone said " I wonder if we could get this thing running?" It had been sitting outside for something like 15 or 20 years without being started. It was full of old car parts. A lot of stuff under the hood was unhooked. But, maybe? Next thing you know out comes a battery. Car turns over as soon as we hook it up. Solenoid must be stuck. We can work around that. Hmmm, turns over too slow. Hook up a jump starter to the battery. Turns over a little faster but still not right. We are using jumper cables on and off like a key because the starter is always engaged. Pulled plugs checked for spark, nothing. Checked distributer, turns out it has one of those old ACCEL dual points, kinda cool. Still no spark. Im not an car electric kind of guy but I believe next he found there was spark on one side of the coil. Light bulb went off in his head ... turn the key on. Hit it with the jumper cables, we got a little ignition pop, that was cool! He didnt have any gas in a can, but he did have a little paint reducer. Down the carb it goes. Hit it with the jumper cables. It starts for a few seconds! Is it getting gas? Well its probably not gas anymore, its so old and has that really old gas smell (which I kind of like lol). Checked the filter to see if there was any gas in it. No, but we did find out the line wasn't even hooked up and the fuel pump was squirting gas onto the trailer. Got that hooked back up. Decided to take off the starter and see if we could unstick the solenoid. In the process he found a couple of wires fused together. He pulled em apart, hit it with the jumper cables ... nothing. Turned the key instead and it turned over. Much easier this way lol. Little more reducer, pump the gas, turn the key, and WHAAAAAAAH! It runs! And the throttle is stuck open LOL. A little WD fixes that. It was so cool. I had totally forgotten how much FUN it is playing around with old cars. Its not WORK, its fun and satisfying. Hanging out with a couple of buds and bringing that old Tempest back to life was awesome. I had a mile wide smile all the way home (and that great old car smell in my work clothes). No, I'm not going to buy that car. Its pretty cool but I prefer something a little older. Can hardly wait to get started on my next "neat" old project.
Good read, thanks. Yeah, you can lay low for a while, but it's hard to quit entirely, no doubt. Good luck with the next project whatever it ends up being. And there will be another one eventually, you know it.
That's a cool story- well written. I've only been in the old car game for a few years, but I can't imagine ever NOT having at least one in my life for the rest of my life. It is absolutely infectious. Let us know when you get your new project.
Great story Cruel! A bunch of guys in our club have been thrashing on a car for the father of a few of our members. I work at my shop all day and am REALLY burned out on cars but I go over there at night and work on thier dad's car and it reminds me why we love what we do. Not only are we working on the car for a great guy but I get to hang out with my buddies too! And there is nothing like bringing a car back from the dead either. The Olds we are working on has been sitting for something like 20 years and in about three weeks of evenings we almost have it ready for the road.
It is soooooo much fun to tinker. Not be in a rush for a get together or something else. It is also nice to watch as things start to take shape. I am one of those guys who can do everything but upholstery but now days I just don't have the time, I'm 62, So I farm out the welding but I get a great rush out of doing the body work. Kinda like sculpturing. Bend it shape it and make it look cool. I don't think I will ever have a car built but I do send more stuff out than I used to.
I think we are on the same page Fuzzy Knight. I enjoy the hell out of working on my projects without a deadline and can just do what I feel like doing that day or hours but I am getting to the point that I hate deadlines. No more having to have the rig done by______________ -___________ show or other event. when it gets done it gets done.
Good read Cruel, guess it will allow the Tempest to sell a bit quicket than a mystery lump. I'm a body guy and find it hard to get interested in making things runners.
Yep, that made me smile. Been there and done that. I'm in my late '50's and expect another 20 or more years mucking around with cars. Go for it and enjoy it to the max.
Too far away from here, but I gotta ask, what kind of $ for that junky ol Pontiac? '65 GTO, best thing I owned...
I'm not positive on the price, I think it was a few grand at least. Course now that its a runner who knows LOL. There was no front seat and the wheels were modern Center Line knock offs. The guy he traded with kept the front buckets, he told me they were super nice. And he kept the torq thrusts that have been on it since 64. I bet it was a very cool car back in the day.
sure can relate to that story! popping off a motor that hasn't ran in years is quite the rush. pretty easy to lose your "vehicle mojo" after doing a few.
well written story! inspiring. Man I have been having some teeth problems... (I have the dental version of a HMO... waiting on approval bullshit) and I know I let a buddy down that I was helping get his car back up and running. I know what you mean about the deadlines... If it werent for deadlines I would be over there every night once the teeth get taken care of... but with the dead lines i just let him down. I cant wait to just work on a car for fun again... I Had a dead line of the 11' LSRU for my car... now I have a Dead line of NEXT SUNDAY.... (every sunday is the next sunday...)
I to get fed up with old cars a couple of years ago sold a lot of junk found more junk i dont even know i had sold that Bought me a Mercedes SL 500 nice car can do all that the old junk can just better plus it got brakes and handlig thats way ahead of everything navigator, leather, ortopedic seats, glasroof, quiet,damnfast,power everything, fuelefisient,ac even in the seats,so on and so on,Hey its to perfect stil love it but got the spark back to work on the not so perfect old junk with the frickety frickety rumpta rumtpta idle and harsh ride noisy exhaust and marginal brakes
That was a great story As we get older it seems more like work then fun,Im heading in to the garage right now to do some work .The fun is all gone for me .I hope something like that happens to me .
Great story, I had some nights like that myself. Like others,brought a big smile to my face.Thanks for the story and the flashback of good times.
After you lived to be 66 you will have gone through that cycle a few times. I've come close to chucking it all and just taking up hunting/fishing/golf/drinking/gambling/snowmobiling(to much like cars)......................but at the last minute I always find a project that I can't/won't live without and I just get deeper into it than before. My grandpa had me tinkering with old cars,trucks,tractors before I started school by following him around all day so I guess I'm a lifer. I've known people who were alcoholics and drug users and they never seem to be happy or have anything so being a car guy isn't the worse affliction there is but finding a balance along with the other important things in life can be a challenge at times. Frank
The Jalopy Journal
